Day trip to Assisi

I feel incredibly lucky to have had so many beautiful days all in a row. Like some universal scale is becoming unbalanced and someone on the other side of the world has had a week of miserable days while I get all the perfect ones. Because that's what today was...another perfect day, and maybe it seems like I'm making this up but I promise it's all very real.

Katy, Jamie, Molly, Astrid, and I woke up bright and early at 6am to catch a train at 7:45 to Assisi. Assisi is a little town in the Umbrian region, about 2 hours from Rome. It is most famous for St. Francis, the patron saint of animals and a bunch of other things - his basilica is one of the most famous pilgrimage sites. But besides being known for St. Francis, Assisi is a small, quiet place nestled into a mountainside overlooking the Umbrian valley, and is also the home of our dear Ezio (who was coincidentally visiting this weekend, though we never ran into him!)

We started by taking a bus from the train station up the hillside to the Basilica. By 10am it was already warm, and soon it was almost hot, I kept my jacket off most of the day, which is the best feeling. In the Basilica, we saw St. Francis' tomb and famous frescoes by Giotto. I briefly became lost from the group for a bit, only to find out that I was right around the corner from them the whole time, but it took going down the hill and back up another way to realize it. After a delicious lunch of ravioli with artichoke followed by tiramisu, we wandered to the main square of Assisi, then split up for awhile.

Katy, Jamie, and I began our ascent further up the mountain, adventuring aimlessly. This method led us through an ancient Roman tunnel converted into a parking garage, to the edge of the city where we could see all the camping and hiking trails through the forest, to an abandoned watchtower whose entrance was sadly blocked, to rebelliously hopping a barbed wire fence into a private olive grove (Katy's idea, I swear! And rather than get snagged on barbed wire, we rolled under the fence, like pros). What's funny about this though is that while the grove felt very private while we were in it, we later realized that from any vantage point in Assisi we were completely visible to anyone looking in that direction. And, there was no exit, just a large locked door that could not be climbed, and so we jumped off a wall. ADVENTURE!

Onward to the castle! So the other thing Assisi is known for is the Rocca Maggiore, a medieval castle built in 1164 AD or something like that. It was used for battles, sieges, and other cool medieval stuff. We climbed the highest tower, then traipsed through the wall, up the tower on the other side, then laid down on the walls for awhile, which we probably weren't supposed to do but Italians don't care about safety it seems, so no one stopped us. In fact, we stayed there past closing time unknowingly and the man closing up didn't even yell at us - he just very politely and kindly told us he was closing. Laying on the wall, we had a complete 360 degree view of the valley.

Molly and Astrid also found us again at the castle, so with not much time left, we headed back down to the main square for some gelato and then caught the bus back to the train station. It was another best day ever in a series of best days ever. I couldn't have asked for more - beautiful weather, places, and people.